FOXBORO — In Seattle, it was the Seahawks against the Saints. In Carolina, it'll be the Panthers against the 49ers.

But in New England and Denver, things are different due to the imposing passing presence of a pair of future first-ballot Hall of Fame quarterbacks. The focus is always first and foremost on Tom Brady and Peyton Manning.

Football is the ultimate team game, but Brady and Manning have separated themselves in their pigskin profession due to their terrific individual accomplishments and magnetic — although vastly different — personalities. They are the main attraction in every game they play and the current standard by which all others are measured.

Here on Saturday night, Brady squared off against sensational sophomore Andrew Luck as the Patriots faced the Colts in an AFC divisional-round playoff game at Gillette Stadium.

Luck is young, but he's wise beyond his 24 years. He understood it was a one-on-one challenge between the two No. 12s.

"(Brady) has definitely set the standard for success at the quarterback position," Luck said earlier in the week. "The way he handles himself, watching from afar, the competitive nature and basically all the right things he does. Yeah, I guess he is a barometer, and he is the standard."

Brady was making his league-record 25th career playoff start and came in with 17 postseason wins, which was already a league record by one.

He added to the total with a 43-22 victory while advancing to the AFC Championship for the eighth time in the 13 seasons since he ascended to the throne of starter-for-life in New England.

"It's just a great achievement for our team," Brady said. "There will only be four teams standing after Sunday. I know people have counted us out at times this year, but I think we have a locker room of believers, and hopefully we can go out and play our best next week."

Brady will either meet Manning and his Broncos in Denver or face Philip Rivers and the Chargers here at 3 p.m. next Sunday as he continues his quest to become the first player to start six Super Bowls.

He'd join boyhood hero Joe Montana and Terry Bradshaw as the only QBs with four Lombardi Trophies on their résumés with a win next month in the Jersey Swamp.

Brady finished 13 of 25 for 198 yards while becoming the first player in NFL history to pass for 6,000 yards in the playoffs, on a warm, wet and windy winter evening. He didn't throw for a touchdown, but wasn't intercepted and sacked just once.

Brady was his old-school efficient and effective self while managing a ground game that has become the talk of the league.

"What we've done the last three or four weeks, the running game has just been awesome," Brady said after the Patriots rushed for 234 yards and a franchise-record six touchdowns. "It's helped everything out, and it makes it easy to hand off and go 7 yards for a touchdown. It's a great feeling and a great way to score. Hopefully, we can keep doing it."

Luck, who guided the Colts to the second-biggest comeback win in NFL playoff history last weekend, was 20 of 41 for 331 yards and two touchdowns. He was picked off four times — three the result of poor decisions, the other a poor set of hands — and was sacked three times.

The second-year pro displayed all the dazzling traits, particularly a remarkable touch on deep balls, that led the Colts to select him first overall in the 2012 draft. But those four turnovers gave him eight in two postseason games, after accumulating 11 in 16 games during the regular season.

You can get away with that against Alex Smith and the Chiefs. Not so much when it comes to Brady and the Patriots, who scored 14 points off the giveaways.

"I can't commit that many turnovers and have a chance to win against a good team like this," Luck said.

Brady stood out on two drives.

The first came on the Patriots' second offensive series. He completed passes of 13 yards to running back Shane Vereen on third down, 25 yards to receiver Julian Edelman and 16 yards to receiver Danny Amendola on third down before LeGarrette Blount scored the second of his four rushing touchdowns to make it 14-0.

Nine of Brady's 13 completions went for first downs.

The other drive came early in the third quarter after the Colts cut the lead to six points, with Brady's experience, intelligence and pocket presence on full display.

He connected with Amendola downfield for a 53-yard gain following an exquisite play-action fake on first down with the Patriots backed up to their own 12.

"It was a pretty hard sell that we ran there," Brady said. "Because we were running the ball so well, maybe that got a little reaction, and then Danny got behind them. It was good to get out of the shadow of our own goal line and into their territory."

Three plays later, Brady smoothly slid to his right to avoid pressure before connecting with Edelman for 8 yards on third-and-7.

Brady later avoided a sack, casually stepping up in the pocket, and an intentional grounding penalty, smartly spotting Edelman before releasing the ball, on the same play before the drive ended with Stevan Ridley rushing for a touchdown and ensuing two-point conversion to extend the lead to 29-15.

Luck finished with bigger numbers, but it was Brady — as usually is the case — who came out ahead in the highlighted helmet-to-helmet quarterback confrontation he's always part of.